nutrition or teach about drug side effects.
These games can be more effective than
say, giving patients a long list of advice
and expecting them to read and retain it.

A second category are what he calls“exer-games,” interactive platforms suchas the Wii aimed at promoting physicalexercise. “If you can make exercise fun,you can get people to exercise longer,”he says. Another emerging category isthat of simulated training games andenvironments used to educate physi-cians and others in clinical techniques.Last, some games are intended as pureresearch tools, such as Foldit, an onlinevideo puzzle game about protein foldingdeveloped by the University of Washing-nect with an audience than setting uptraditional classrooms and hiring staff,Falstein says.

ton’s Center for Game Science.

Calculating the cost-effectiveness of
these various games is far more complicated than assessing a profit and loss
statement of sales, like commercial entertainment companies do. In training
and education, for example, games might
be a cheaper, more efficient way to con-

Grantsmanship on Display

PHySICAL THERAPIST GETS FEDERAL HELP IN LAUNCHING FIRM

NAME:
FOUNDED:
SIZE:
TARGET AUDIENCE:

Blue Marble’s flagship product is called “Treasure of Bell Island.”
The interactive game—and an accompanying database to
capture results—are designed to assist patients with traumatic
brain injuries. The company was launched with funding from the
military, says CEO Sheryl Flynn. She’s a physical therapist who
got the idea while working at a physical therapy clinic affiliated
with the University of Southern California, where Flynn also held
a research position. She noticed Sony’s PlayStation and figured
it might have application as a therapeutic tool. She even reached
out to Sony, but the firm brushed her off. “I was a little ahead of
my time,” Flynn recalls.

Non-plussed, Flynn jumped into the concept full force. “I
told my lab mates, ‘We need to start a company. We have to
figure out a way to get these games in the hands of users with
evidence-based medicine in mind.’ I came from academia and
grants were the only way I knew to generate funds, so that is
the route I took.” In 2009, Flynn got a $100,000 small business
innovation and research (SNIR) grant from the Department of Defense. The funding enabled her to flesh out the idea, conduct initial research, and establish a business plan. A year later, she fulfilled the grant’s purpose and won a second grant for $750,000,
enabling her to move the idea forward. The upstart firm promptly
grew to five employees, as Flynn added a programmer, designer,
a business development expert and a part-time artist.

Sheryl Flynn, CEO

The company has since expanded, but not without growingpains, Flynn says. ‘The grant involves a lot of research. It wouldbe different if we just made a product and were done with it. Wehad to embed a number of trials in the project and that slowsdown development.”Flynn even applied to the National Institutes of Health for a $1million dollar grant to fund development, but was spurned. “Thereviewer did not understand the need for such a large budget,”she recalls. “If they only knew that most games cost tens of mil-lions to develop and there is no research involved. The militaryunderstands costs.”Any additional funding, so far, has come from Flynn’s ownpocket, as she has stayed away from angel or venture capital.The terms of the SBIR grants—Blue Marble has received threetotal—allow the company to own the product and keep anysubsequent sales money. The firm is giving the game away freeto veterans, but charging for use of the associated database.In her model, clinicians would pay a subscription fee to haveaccess to the data and provide feedback to the player onprogress. Standalone physical therapy and similar clinics is hertarget market. Blue Marble’s also developing a falls preven-tion game. The firm is in discussion with UnitedHealth aboutpotential partnership deals, adds Chris Ashford, Blue Marble’sbusiness development manager.